


changing the odds

by harlequin421



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Gen, Implied Character Death, M/M, Open ended
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-30
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-11 01:22:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harlequin421/pseuds/harlequin421
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The odds were not in their favor, and no one was going to die if he had anything to say about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

This wasn’t part of the plan at all.

The plan included clever traps and Scott as bait. It included Erica and Isaac making sure that if Scott was paralyzed that they’d stop the Kanima from doing too much damage and chase after one of them instead. It included Boyd and Derek waiting at the abandoned subway station for the bait to lead the Kanima there. Where they would fight/lead it to the pit of spikes that they’d built. Where they’d push it in and then it would die a horrible and painful death.

There were so many loopholes in that plan.

And Scott was the one who told him about it, because he hadn’t been invited to the plan meeting.

He didn’t care. Until he calculated the chances they had of getting out of this alive.

It was roughly 35% and Stiles didn’t like those odds.

So he changed the plan.

First he called 911 and told the dispatcher that there were three people following him and that they’d talked about hurting him, and he gave them the directions to Erica’s house where Boyd and Isaac were hanging out until their Alpha summoned.

They were arrested. 

The next thing he did was tell Scott that Derek was in a bad mood and had asked him to stay away tonight, that they were going to go ahead with the plan tomorrow night. And then told him that Derek said not to bother him for the rest of the night. Scott had sighed in relief and said that he had plans with Allison anyway.

Derek was going to be the hardest to deal with. Because he wasn’t just going to fall in line with Stiles’ plan. He was probably going to threaten to kill Stiles for ruining his plan, but Stiles didn’t care right now.

The odds were not in their favor, and no one was going to die if he had anything to say about it.

So he went to Dr. Deaton, and told him that they were planning to trap the Kanima again, and that he needed more Mountain Ash.

The vet didn’t look like he believed Stiles. But he did give him the Ash, and held his wrist and looked into his eyes as if he could read his mind, and told him to be careful.

Stiles grinned at him and joked about the fact that he was running with wolves trying to catch a killer lizard, he’d be careful when he was dead.

He didn’t like the look the vet gave him at the comment, but he’d waved at him still smiling.

His odds of surviving this were less than .05%.

——

Trapping Derek in the Mountain Ash was ridiculously easy.

Stiles thought that he’d at least give him more of a fight. He’d come prepared for that.

But no Derek growled at him, predictably. And then while Stiles babbled loud enough that it echoed slightly in the abandoned subway station, he walked in a circle around Derek letting the Ash drizzle from the hole he’d made in his hoodie pocket, and Derek kept his eyes on him the entire time, but he didn’t notice.

Once the circle was complete Stiles sighed and grinned crookedly at him, “That was easier than I thought it was going to be.”

And that’s when Derek noticed the circle. He snarled and tried charging at Stiles only to hit an invisible barrier and jump back growling and almost completely wolfed out, “What do you think you’re doing Stiles!?”

Stiles shook his head, “Saving your life. Saving all of your lives. There is a 65% chance that all of you were just going to die! And you didn’t even ask for my help! So I changed your plan. Evened out your odds. 99.05% that you all will survive tonight. Because that’s my job. Making sure that you all survive.”

Derek walked back and forth snarling.

“And when exactly did that become your job!?” he hissed through his teeth.

Stiles laughed, “The moment you met me. The moment you decided to insinuate yourself in my life. I care about all of you. Maybe some of you more than others, but it’s still there.”

He pressed a hand to his heart, “You’re all in here. And I may not be a wolf with awesome abilities, but I care! And if any of you died, if Scott died, I don’t know what would happen to me.”

He let the smile drop from his face, “I’ve already lost my mom, and am well on my way to losing my dad, I can’t lose you guys too. I’ll snap. And I don’t know what I’d do.”

Derek looked at him, “Let me out.”

Stiles shook his head, “No. You’re safe in there. The Kanima can’t cross the circle to get in, and you can’t cross the circle to get out. It’s a win-win situation. 99.05% chance of succeeding.”

Derek snarled and looked ready to just cross the barrier even if it hurt him in the process. 

Stiles just shook his head and pulled out the gun that was tucked into his waistband, “Wolfsbane bullets. Borrowed from the Argents. Well stolen. It’s not like they’re going to miss them. And I know you can survive at least survive 48 hours with one bullet. The odds are half of that with two. A third of it with three. A fourth with four. And a fifth with five. Five bullets equal 9.6 hours. There are ten bullets in the magazine, five to shoot at you, and five for the antidote that your pups will have to administer when they finally get let out of jail.”

Derek’s mouth was open as he looked at him in shock.

Stiles took out the safety from the gun and trained it at Derek, “Five bullets also mean that you’ll succumb faster to the poison. So you’ll probably pass out in 30 minutes. But you’ll be too weak to fight. So you’ll stay inside of the circle. Derek, please don’t tempt me.”

Derek took a step back, and Stiles felt a rush of power at that. 

He’d intimidated the Alpha.

That’s when he heard the hiss.

He smiled slightly, “Looks like Lucy just got home.”

He looked back at Derek, “You know that you don’t have to feel guilty about it. Jackson is gone. The boy he used to be disappeared under the guise of a douche. Just because you gave him what he wanted, didn’t mean that he was going to change his stripes. Just something to keep in mind.”

“What’s the .05% for?” Derek asked.

And Stiles was a little shocked that he’d noticed that.

He shrugged, “Those are the odds that I’ll get out of this alive.”

The way Derek was looking at him distracted him for a second. It was pained, and like if he cared. Like he looked at him after the whole pool thing where his life had been in Stiles’ hands. Like if he more than cared. Like if he was going to miss Stiles when he died. Like if he…

Stiles shook his head at him, “Don’t. That’s not going to change my mind. It might make it harder, at best. But I’m still going to do this. And you’re going to stay in there because I will shoot you if necessary.”

Derek opened his mouth, and that’s when the Kanima finally made it’s appearance.

Stiles smiled, “Hey Jackson! I guess you found my underwear at Lydia’s didn’t you. Didn’t think that she was going to move on that quickly from you, did you? Did you think that she was going to pine for you for the rest of her life? Did she ever scratch your back and tell you to go faster when you were fucking her?”

The Kanima snarled and charged at Stiles. 

Stiles spared one look at Derek who looked like he was going to jump into the fray, the barrier be damned, and he pulled the trigger. Five times while walking backwards. He missed one.

He threw the gun on the floor so that it slid over to where Derek was, where he was falling on the floor roaring and screaming Stiles’ name.

And Stiles turned around and started to run to where he knew was the pit of spikes.

The Kanima slashed at his back. And Stiles felt the sharp nails slashing through his clothes and probably turning his back into ribbons. He knew that the paralytic was going to hit him in a few seconds.

So he braced himself ignoring the pain radiating from his back, and the way the blood was gushing, and jumped. He managed to hold on to the edge of the hole, while Jackson fell inside screeching as the spikes ran him through.

There was a gurgling sound and a low hiss, and then it was quiet. Stiles felt his fingers start to numb.

At least he wasn’t going to feel it when the spikes ran him through.

He could still hear Derek saying his name over and over. Stiles let out a small laugh and whispered, “I love you too.”

And then his fingers slipped.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was convinced to write a happy ending to this!

Derek heard noises, voices clogging up his ears, and making his head pound.

“How are we supposed to pass the barrier!?” someone was growling. It sounded like Erica.

“Didn’t think of that?! Did you! Asshole!” Yeah, definitely Erica.

He gave a weak groan and suddenly there were feet scurrying in his direction, “Derek are you okay?” And that was Isaac.

There was a low smack, “Of course he’s not okay! He’s got poisoned bullets stuck in him, and we can’t get to him to administer the freaking antidote!”

Derek wanted to laugh at that, because of course Stiles would’ve given him a way out of this whole thing. It was like he knew just how much Derek wouldn’t want to go on, if he wasn’t around.

“I don’t mean to be the bearer of even more bad news, but if we don’t get Stilinski to a hospital, he’s going to die. And it might be ten times more painful once the paralytic wears off.”

Derek’s eyes snapped open at that. He forced himself to sit up, and looked blankly over to where Boyd was holding on to Stiles. Stiles who was limp in his arms, in every way he looked dead, but Derek could hear the sluggish beat in his chest.

He felt relief spread through him, “Call Scott.”

He saw Isaac scramble to get his phone, while he did that Derek looked at Erica who looked like she had been crying this whole time and also like if she wanted to jump into his lap and snuggle under his chin until he was feeling better. He managed a weak smile for her, “I’m okay.”

She shook her head, “You’re dying. And we can’t pass the barrier to get to you.”

He turned to Isaac who was yelling at Scott, “Tell him to bring Allison too.”

Isaac nodded his head to how that he’d listened and yelled, “Just come with Allison, your best friend is dying! Or is that something you no longer care about!?”

He hung up the phone.

“Derek,” Boyd says taking a better hold on Stiles. “I’m going to take him to the hospital. He’s bleeding badly. And if we don’t go now, you may have to bite him if you want him to survive.”

Derek just nodded his head waving him off and slumped back down.

It took a few more minutes and Derek was glad that Stiles had aimed the bullets away from his heart, or else he’d be dead by now.

He felt Scott’s panic once he entered the warehouse, “Where is he?!”

He was growling and would’ve probably been in Derek’s face if it wasn’t for the barrier and the two betas that tried to hold him back.

“Calm down,” Allison says and walks over to where Derek is. “What happened?”

“Stiles changed the plan,” Derek says wanting to laugh again. “He didn’t like the odds.”

There was something like a sob coming from Scott, “Where is he?”

“Boyd took him to the hospital,” Erica answered. “But before we go there, we have to cure Derek. Your best friend shot him four times with Wolfsbane bullets. It’s a lucky thing that he left us the gun.”

“Part of the plan,” Derek managed to say before the pain spasmed through his body. He distantly heard himself screaming. But then there were cool hands on his brow and ripping his shirt off, and someone was looking through his pockets trying to find his lighter, and then there was more pain, concentrated in the four bullet holes.

And Derek gasped and his body spasmed and he couldn’t move his arms because they were holding him down, and he wanted to scratch at the bullet holes.

But then the pain disappeared, and he let out a breath and slumped down on the concrete gasping.

He took a few seconds to get himself under control before he was opening his eyes and struggling to get up.

“We have to get to the hospital.”

With Isaac and Erica’s help he made it to his car. Isaac stuffed him into the back seat and Erica took the driver’s seat, and they were speeding out of there.

Derek felt tired. He wanted to sleep for a week. But he couldn’t. Not until he knew that Stiles was safe.

They made it to the hospital in record time. Erica was already sprinting inside before Isaac had even gotten out of the car. He helped Derek out and practically dragged him inside.

Erica was there harassing one of the nurses when Boyd couldn’t tell her what was happening.

Isaac sat him down on one of the chairs in the waiting room and Boyd sat down next to him and started speaking swiftly, “They called the Sheriff and he’s on his way.  It’s really bad Derek. I heard them saying that he needs a blood transfusion but his blood type is rare. The doctor wouldn’t tell me anything because I’m not family.”

He licked his lips and looked at Derek, “It’s going to be okay.”

Derek huffed out a laugh, “Yeah.”

\----

And it was.

Stiles’ dad burst in and almost arrested them all, but Scott’s mom had taken him aside and had explained that they were the ones to bring Stiles in. Scott spun a story about how they were in the woods and some animal attacked them and Stiles got the worst of it.

The Sheriff cried.

And Derek was the one to grip his shoulders tight and tell him that it was going to be okay.

He doesn’t know what the Sheriff saw in his eyes but whatever it was made the man nod his head.

A couple hours after they get the news that Stiles is going to be okay.

It’s going to take a few months for him to heal completely, but he’s out of the danger zone.

Scott cried. And the Sheriff hugged him.

Derek didn’t cry.

He sent the other’s home.

And sat down beside Scott while the Sheriff went to see his son.

Scott shudders, “He did this because we didn’t include him in the plans. We thought we were protecting him, and he turns everything around and protected us.”

Derek nods his head slowly, “That’s what Pack does. We protect each other.”

Scott leaned his head on Derek’s shoulder.

Derek leaned his head on top of Scott’s and sighed out closing his eyes and concentrating on Stiles’ heartbeat.

Everything was going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't hate me! I'm sorry! I was crying while writing okay?!


End file.
